It all started with the geraniums. I was about to start a 1,200-mile race and somebody gave me a geranium. Now this might not seem particularly sensible but it was a nice thought: Something homely, something that I could love and nurture… It should be noted at this point that the donor was not a … Read more
Bosham Channel in Chichester harbour, after the pubs shut, sometime in 1934: A young man in an enormous clinker dinghy rowed backwards and forwards in the pitch darkness looking for his boat. The young man was my father and this was a story that was told and re-told so that it became the stuff of … Read more
The anchor windlass has now worked perfectly half a dozen times in a row. I cannot tell you what a relief this is. I may have mentioned that last autumn, on the trip round from Wales to the English East Coast, periodically it would simply refuse to move: All I got on pressing the button … Read more
The mother of all broaches played out to the accompaniment of Maurice Chevalier singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”. It happened somewhere off the Grand Banks during the 1988 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. I was having a clear-out recently and found the article I wrote for Yachting World. That was in the days when you cut … Read more
It was a great idea. I even sent the family WhatsApp group a message saying I would set out at dawn the next day instead of starting the voyage with a rainy night. Well, I didn’t have a drop of rain… The plan was to sail from Walton on the East Coast to Chichester on … Read more
Getting back to the car after painting the beach hut in Southwold, a message: I have my anchor back. Gus at Harry King’s Boatyard of Pin Mill had retrieved it and apparently it is sitting on the fordeck (washed, no less). So I’m off tomorrow. The wind should be favourable from Saturday afternoon and I … Read more
Well, so much for positive thinking! I spent the morning motoring round and round in circles trying to unwind the anchor chain from a mooring buoy (see previous post). I have a horrible suspicion that I just made it worse. So there seemed nothing to do but wait for my friendly diver to go down. … Read more
Today is Anchor Day. If you are up to speed, you will know that two days ago, I succeeded in wrapping my anchor chain round a mooring buoy. I made what I now realise was a half-hearted attempt to untangle it. Today I am going to do the job properly. Much of the reason for … Read more
Years ago, when I worked for the Daily Mail, I used to be the “Captain Calamity Correspondent”. Captain Calamity appeared most summers – in the “silly season” when there wasn’t much news about and anything at all could get most of a page – lost exotic animals, the weather (of course) – and amateur sailors … Read more
